Mystic: The Tablets of Gilgamesh

Chapter Six
A Titanic Battle

Jellal was in the shadow realm, walking when he opened the portal to Antarctica. As he did, he was greeted by a large building constructed out of well-carved stone, encased in powerful enchanted ice created by Daniel Phisher.
As he attempted to sneak in, he thought about his time questioning Sally for the first hour. She had been willing to tell him everything, but he was suspect of her entire premise.

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The room was darkly lit as Crystal sat behind the bars, her cell cursed to prevent her from breaking out. Keepers could make curses while Seekers could bless.

“Tell me, why are you searching for the pieces, Crystal?” Jellal asked as he confronted her in her cell.
“It’s Lord Daniel’s plans,” she responded.

“And,” he began, “what plan is that?”

“To make the world a better place, for humans and Mystics alike. To live in harmony,” she answered.
“Then why did you attack my friends?”

“They were in the way of preventing this. Would you not do the same to those who were against the Revolutionary War?” Crystal interjected.

Jellal was perplexed, did she really think that was a valid reason to attack?

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Jellal was inside the castle when he saw someone standing guard, he placed a curse on them, making them turn around only to slip and fall on their face, knocking them out. He continued until he saw two large white doors covered in ice, the air becoming colder and colder as he came closer to it. When he came upon them, he pushed them open, where a man was waiting for him, sitting on the throne: Daniel.

Daniel began to clap, grabbing Jellal’s attention, Daniel smiling with a slight little laugh under his breath.

“Jellal Merrison, so kind of you to drop by,” Daniel said. The trident of Poseidon was sitting on the wall behind Daniel, as if simply on display. “I assume you came for the pieces of the stone tablet?” He gestured to Jellal the stand nearby that housed the pieces, all four were there. They glowed with power as they remained connected, only three were left. “Well, go on, take them.”

Jellal eyed Daniel, knowing full well it was a trap. “Why are you doing this?”

“Why?” Daniel responded. “Why, because the time has come.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jellal asked.

Daniel smirked, “I mean what I said. The time for the God’s to be replaced. Their incompetency has cost the lives of billions of humans and other life forms. For too long, they have sat out while they watched with utter indifference while man has suffered by either the God’s own creation or creation by proxy. They failed us, Jellal, you know that more than anyone,” he said with a smile. “Tell me, was Ares truly a God worth worshipping?”

“He doesn’t represent the rest, Daniel,” he retorted. “And why are you trying to kill your own brother?” Daniel’s face changed fro ma smirk to a serious look as he squinted his eyes slightly at Jellal as if something offending was said to him. Crystal had told him a little bit and connecting the two last names, their looks, it was obvious to Jellal that Adam must be Daniel’s brother.

“My brother?” Daniel responded as if asking himself who that was, in a soft tone.

“You tried to have him killed by your posse, how could even think of doing that? Adam is clearly too ignorant and weak to stop you, let alone see how insane you are,” Jellal said.

“Don’t speak ill of my intentions before me,” Daniel snapped at him with a calm, yet postulating comment. “My brother is either with or against me if he aids you, he has to die, it’s that simple. I can’t take any chances, Jellal.”

“Easy for you to say,” Jellal commented, “as Daniel the God Slayer.”

Daniel slammed his fist on the throne armrest, “I did what I had to, who are you to judge, abject, impotent fool?!” The building began to shake violently as Daniel’s eyes glowed, making their light blue color become brighter. “I should have you killed where you stand.”

“So killing your own father was necessary?” Jellal remarked, “how low you have fallen. You crossed a terrible threshold, Daniel.”

Daniel stood up and began to slowly walk down the stairs as he smirked, “then maybe I should serve your head to my brother in hopes he will come to my side. If you wish to stand in my way, then you are culpable for the discrimination we face, the ostracization, the deaths that have plagued our people and the lazy God’s themselves.” As he walked down, he extended his right arm out as water particles began to form at his palm, growing ever bigger, faster and faster, until a handle of water appeared. The handle began to solidify as it all finished forming a trident and the one on the wall was now gone.

Daniel spun the trident around like a propeller, fluidly and masterfully around his fingers at remarkable speed. He bent his knees and then kicked off, flying at Jellal. Jellal, having one arm, had to play his cards right. As the trident came to fly towards his gut, he elbow smacked it away, redirecting it.

The pursuit was not over as Daniel rose it up and then cocked back before striking again and again and again, each with enough force to stab a tank’s armor. Jellal skillfully dodged and deflected when he could not be granted the affordability to take such a hit.

Jellal spun around to dodge a strike and sent a kick to Daniel’s back, but the trident blocked it effectively. “You’re slow, Jellal.” Jellal’s eyes twitched at that comment, was he really showing it that much? “Why don’t we get serious?” Daniel asked as the trident disappeared and reappeared like before, this time back on its original spot on the wall.

Daniel clenched his fists, smiling as he vanished via raw speed as if he teleported. He reappeared beside Jellal with a fist rocketing towards Jellal, who countered by grabbing it. The very force from the attack was delayed, but then it happened, the ground shattered into pieces of rubble and ice shards flying everywhere. The force from it blasted outward and shattered the pillars and the roof, collapsing following the deafening boom. Daniel began to glow as he eyed Jellal, he hadn’t moved one inch.

Daniel spotted Jellal’s facial expression, he was crunching his face from the pressure he was fending off, which spoke of a limit or exhaustion. “Is this it? For the strongest Keeper alive, you sure are struggling!”

Jellal saw Daniel start to glow a yellowish-white color, the aura spiking out of his body like a flame, his eyes glowed yellow as his strength also increased a hundredfold. This sent Jellal flying through the nearest wall still standing and across the snowy and icy glade and into the nearby ocean. Jellal’s body sank down as he looked up to the surface with only one eye open. He closed both and allowed dark energy from the depths of the ocean to engulf him.

Daniel used his speed to vanish and reappear by the edge of the ice and snow, just before the water. He smirked as he turned away. “With how long he was in there, he’d be dead, and I don’t sense anything there.”

Then it happened, a massive explosion from the water appeared behind Daniel as he looked up to see Jellal flying and engulfed by the shadowy aura and demonic-shaped long claws replaced his fingernails. He opened his eyes as he released the aura and adjusted the gravity around him.
Normally, Jellal worked with his body being forced to the ground by adjusting the gravity to be 100x that of earth gravity. With this released, he would be faster, strong, and not weighed down. He rocketed to the ice before him, the ice sheet and earth cracking down the middle and the outer ends rising up as if sandwiching Jellal, caused by his unmitigated power.

He raised hi amputated arm up as shadow sprouted from it, forming into a demonic skin covered in purple energy. He extended it towards Daniel and smiled as he waved him to come.
The two clashed, moving at high speeds, faster than bullets at they clashed around the place, in the sky, and on the ground, sonic boom-like sounds from their clash exploded all over the place. Troops nearby that served under Daniel watched in amazement.

“They’re so fast!” one man said.

“I-I can’t track them!” another said.

“They’re powerful, it’s… It’s unreal!” said one female.

As the two fought, the earth began to shatter as Jellal dodged a punch and went to knee Daniel, landing in his gut. Daniel counter with a headbutt and right fist to Jellal’s face. Jellal turned around and elbowed the fist away and did small hits real fast to his gut and then an uppercut.

“Haha, you’re good Jellal, I expected nothing less! But can you kill that which killed a God? Humans can’t move the unmoveable, yet I did it anyways, how can you top that?!” Daniel shouted with glee.
“You’re a psychopath, Daniel!” Jellal said as they continued hitting, dodging, kicking, punching, and laser beaming one another. Daniel charged using his hyperspeed and appearing in front of Jellal, sending a punch to his face, but Jellal vanished and appeared behind Daniel and balled his fist up and stroked down towards Daniel. Daniel vanished and appeared behind Jellal. The two continued this for a few seconds, to them it was an hour.

The two broke off, floated in the air, using their mystic powers, as they eyed one another. “You’re stronger than I expected,” Daniel complemented Jellal. “Same my brother will lose his teacher.”
“You talk too much,” Jellal replied as he flew at Daniel, a ball of energy and gravity in his hand. He vanished and appeared behind Daniel and placed the ball on his back, activating a curse. The curse took hold of Daniel as he was forced to the ground. “I just increase the gravity for you by 100 times that of the earth. You won’t be able to move much now.” Daniel chuckled at this. Jellal kicked Daniel far into the ocean in response. “Is this all you’ve got?”

The earth shook again as Daniel rose from the sea. His body flying from the energy as he smiled at Jellal.

“No, this is all I’ve got.” He said as he rose his hands up despite the curse, his power negating it with a blessing. Soon the ocean began to part until the seabed showed itself, the many colorful lifeforms living beneath the icy shores were on full display as the water on the sides rose up high. They reached 100 feet in the air as Daniel chuckled. “Tell me, do you fear to die in the ocean?” He flung his arms forward as the ocean shot itself at Jellal in the form of tiny water bullets, all flying as fast as a real bullet.

Jellal countered by adjusting the gravity his body gave off and reversing it like a white hole, the bullets not even scathing him. The energy from his power radiated as the bullets redirected around him. They then stopped and moved back while the ocean still fired, but they didn’t do much.

Daniel vanished and appeared behind Jellal as he went to stab him with his hand but was subsequently deflected with an Aikido defense move and felt himself get stabbed in the heart by Jellal, his eyes now red. “I can see you.”

His calm demeanor changed as the body began to turn to water and splash out, then it happened, a trident stabbed through his back and out of his chest. “Ah!” Jellal uttered as he heard a calm laughing from behind.

“Is that so?” Daniel inquired. He twisted the trident as Jellal’s arm faded and his body went limp before falling onto the sheet of cracked ice. Daniel slowly lowered himself to the ground as he turned around and walked away. The ocean sweeping in and dragging Jellal’s body into the depths. His body falling down as he smiled, “looks like I failed you, Adam. I’m sorry. I’m sorry Mako, Sally, and Alura.” Soon his body faded into the darkness of the ocean.

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Adam was laying on the ground, bloodied when this occurred. He tried to move, but could not. Then he felt a sharp pain in his chest as everything faded to black.